This week the students found two artifacts in our classroom.  One was a clay pot and the other a gourd with symbols on them.  Upon doing research we found that these symbols were also found on petroglyphs in a historic site near Peterborough, Ontario and created by First Nations people hundreds of years ago.  The students divided into groups to do some further research and uncovered what the symbols represented.

This week students also created their own symbols to represent stories that were important to them.  These stories were based on a family tradition, celebration or ceremony. They then created artwork incorporating these symbols and a collection of family photos that they had brought in.

Earlier this month, the students had the opportunity to take a walking tour through High Park and learn how the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe First Nations People survived off this land up until the late 1700s.  After this experience, the students found an interesting note from our classroom character Felicity the Fairy.
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Upon finding this note, the students learned about how to measure circumference.  They also began creating questions to lead their own inquiry projects on the Annishinabe and Haudenosaune First Nations people who inhabited the High Park Area.

Students divided into groups to tackle different areas to research such as transportation, clothing, food and housing.  They started to learn about paragraph formation while recording information they had gathered on each topic.  In mathematics, the students learned about patterning while looking at traditional beading methods of the Annishinabe people.

Last week at our Reader's Cafe, the students managed to raise $140.00.  They decided to use this money to purchase hats, mitts, sock and scarves for families in need in our local community.  Before purchasing these items, the students were given a problem to solve.  If there were 4 table groups purchasing these items and we had $140.00 to spend, how much would each group have?  The students worked in teams and used base ten units to solve this problem.  Once they had done this we spoke about calculating tax and remembering that each item at Dollarama does not always cost one dollar!  For this reason, the students decided they would need to bring wipe boards and markers to record the prices of each item so they could add them up correctly.

After we made our calculations we walked to Dollarama.  The students eagerly worked in teams to select their items and pay at the cash.  The students really came together to take charge of this meaningful learning experience.  I was so proud of them.

This week, the students busily prepared for our classroom's reader's cafe.  At our reader's cafe the students had the opportunity to consolidate what they had learned in our unit on plants by writing scripts, songs, stories and informative posters about this topic.  To prepare for this event, the students had the opportunity to share their work with three other Mountview classes.  During these rehearsals the student practised projecting their voices and delivering their lines with enthusiasm.

This term the students started off their inquiry learning about The Black Oak Savannah, one of North America's most endangered ecosystems.  They learned that this Savannah once flourished in High Park when it was being cared for by the Indigenous people who first inhabited this land.  This week, the students went to visit High Park again to learn about the Indigenous people who lived in High Park in the 1500-1700s.  They were given an introduction as to how the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe people lived in harmony with the land.  They learned about The Three Sisters, which were crops that were often planted together.  They also learned about different types of housing that were built during this period and how they made their clothing.  This week the students will begin independent research projects on the inhabitants of High Park during the 1600s-1700s.  

Over the past two months, students have been examining daily how to build and break apart triple digit numbers.  We have been looking at number patterns, addition, subtraction and easing into multiplication and division.  When the students are finished their daily math assignments one of their favourite things to do is build their own math problems for themselves and one another.  

This week the students started to prepare for our Reader's Cafe.  This term the students have learned a lot about the life cycle of a plant, including concepts such as photosynthesis, germination and pollination.  They have also learned about the properties of soil and how they contribute to the life cycle of a plant.  To consolidate their learning, the students have written songs, comics, stories and scripts about what they have learned.  They cannot wait to present these creations to the other Mountview students, the Mountiview teachers, their friends and family.

After we were given a pumpkin at the farm last week for the classroom, the students had so many questions about pumpkins!  This resulted in us having a pumpkin themed week.  We started the week by engaging in pumpkin themed activities with our learning buddies, the Kindergarten students.

The students have been studying grouping, division and multiplication this week.  When they wanted to uncover how many pumpkin seeds were in our class pumpkin they each first estimated an amount.  We then collectively decided to place them in groups of 10 so we could easily count them.  We discovered there were 65 groups of 10 and 2 left over.  The students determined there was 652 in all or 65x10 +2=652.

To further explore the conditions needed for a seed to sprout the students observed seeds placed in different conditions.  One batch was given water (without soil) and sunlight.  Two other batches differed in the amount of water.  The difference between the two batches was that one was exposed to sunlight and one was not.  By the end of the week, the seeds in paper towel and water had sprouted.  Some students inferred based on our photosynthesis and soil unit that these seeds would be okay until they started creating their own food and needed to absorb the nutrients from the soil.

This week during their independent work time, the students in room 101 continued to research the questions they had come up with for our worm inquiry.  As a group we learned a lot of interesting facts about our Red Wigglers and some great tips on how to care for them.